A sage in training
by Tale master redux
Summary: "What are you?" the girl asked her red eyes glowing under the moonlight. "Me, I'm just a sage in training travelling the world ."the boy replied his torn cloak fluttering with the wind. this my friend is story of a sage and his companions.
1. Chapter 1

A Sage in training

Disclaimer: All publicly known characters belong to their respective creators and companies. I own nothing except for a few OCs that may or many not appear in this story.

Chapter 1

10 year old Issei Hyoudou was alone in the park. Why was he alone? It was because just a week before his best friend and neighbor Iri move abroad leaving him behind, not that he blamed them. Nut it also left him with no friends as Iri was not only his best friend but also his only friend.

Sure there were other kids he used to play with but they were just that his playmates not friends.

So he was all alone in the park until he saw some kids gathering near an old man and seem to be having lots of fun with whatever he seem to be saying. He also wanted to hear what he was saying but could not get closer due to the large amount of kids nor listen properly due to the noise they were making.

So he just walked away found a bench to rest. He missed his friend but he was not sad about it, after all he promised that he would meet him again and that he would prove that he was the cooler one of the two.

The noise of the children died down and it seems that the old man was finally leaving.

Issei noted that the old man seem to be in a bit of hurry to leave, though he seems to have noticed him as he was coming towards him.

"Hello my boy." The old man greeted

"Why are you sitting here all alone?" he asked.

"Did you not here me preach about the wonder that the world offers?" he continued "Well as much as I would like to stay and preach to you of the wonders of the world, I'm in a bit of a hurry but to not feel left out I'll give you this book and let you discover true wonder yourself."

The book was a bit old Issei noted and was also a bit skeptical of taking it.

"Why?" Issei asked "why are you giving it to me?"

"Why indeed my boy." laughing a bit he said. "it's because I see that whatever that is in the book you will be able to not only see the beauty of it but also spread it like me. And don't worry I have many copies of the book you are holding so no loss for me."

Issei was grateful to the old man, though he did seem a bit untidy and a bit of a drunkard he was at least kind enough to not let him feel and also quite passionate about whatever he was preaching.

"Thank you, sir. I promise that whatever it is in the book I'll learn it and also spread it like you."

"Do that my boy and you will always find a fellow believer in me. Now off you go and off I go and don't forget 'All hail Oppai'."

"Bye, sir." Issei waved though he was a bit confused about the last bit.

Opening the book he read the title, it said 'Senjutsu: The path of the Sage'.

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A few blocks away

The old man after going away from the park checked his belongings and found that something was missing.

"_Ah I must have given that old book to the boy_" he mused "_though no loss as I said after I found that old book in that abandon temple so it must not be worth much, Though it saddens me that another one was lost before knowing the greatness of oppai .better leave before the police comes after me again like they did in the last town. But they would not stop me the world shall know the wonder that is oppai."_

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Later at the Hyoudou household

Issei was going through the book like he had promised the old man and he found out that it was quite boring and soon wanted to give up reading it. But he didn't as he had promised the old man who seem to be quite enthusiastic about it.

Issei though that the man must have been a sage, as he seem to fit the criteria for it. Old, poor looking and a bit of the wise type as he talked to him, so Issei concluded that the old man was definitely a sage not some poor drunkard beggar, after all what kind of beggar would have a book on 'Senjutsu'.

The old man said that he saw something in him that made him give him the book out of the many children in the park and said that he could learn what was in the book and become a sage, though he didn't say that directly he did imply it. Must be a sage thing.

Now Issei mused could he become a sage? The answer was not clear to him but having someone say that you have the potential to become something did give him some confidence. Even if it was from a stranger, a sage, a wise man from stories had told him that he could become one; it did fill him with a strange hope and determination to live up to that expectation.

And thus with a renewed energy Issei continued to read the book. Though there were many sentences and words he did not understand he continued to read the book and even went though it cover to cover.

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3 weeks later

Issei was a bookstore to buy a dictionary and some mangas. He found that they were a lot of things that he did not understand that were in the book and thought that a dictionary and reference book would help him. And the manga you ask? Hey he was a then year old book of course he would buy some mangas and comics. He can't just keep reading an old book over and over again no matter his promise, Cut him some slack already.

And on the topic of the book, he had the book memorized from cover to cover but that did not help him as he still fail to understand many things in the book, and not matter the amount of blind memorization would help him understand it, thus the need for reference books and dictionary.

He was browsing through the manga section since he had already selected the dictionary and a reference book and was now going through the manga section to buy some.

He skimmed through most of the mangas and took the most interesting ones when he came across one that mentioned chakra.

Now he knew that he had heard the word somewhere, when it occurred to him that he had read about it in the book.

He quickly bought the manga and the dictionary and headed home and started comparing it with the book. He found out that the chakra mentioned in the manga and the book were almost the same with some difference.

He busted out laughing at that. He had thought that he would have to buy many expensive books to even know what was being said in the book when he could have just have bought a few mangas to learn it. All his plans of extreme saving went down the drain.

Funny as it was that a manga would be a source of information, he did think that buying more reference books would be helpful. He was surprise at the incident but he should have known better after all.

'A sage finds knowledge where another would least expects it.'

It was a strange saying but one proven true in his situation. It also proved another tenant of sage training.

'One does not become a sage only due to knowledge itself, but also from the various experiences and lessons that the world teaches them no matter how absurd or strange they may be.'

Yes, it was strange, profound but strange. But if this is how one learns to become a sage then Issei though he would not mind becoming one.

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AN: This is a new story that i thought up as it was up in my head for sometime now and thought it would be interesting. this story, a 'what if' story, came to me when i though, what if Issei had training in senjutsu at a young age with the timeline been after Irina had left. and after a bit of thinking another thing popped up. What if the old man responsible for Issei's oppai obsession was the cause of his sage training an thus this story came into existence.

I will have to admit that i have no fixed plan for this story but it is a crossover and will be a crossover so be on the look out for it. though the elements of nasuverse will come in in the most unexpected manner or maybe not so unexpected but i'll try.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Training and discovery

It was five months ago when Issei started his training as a sage and discovered his unusual source of information and knowledge i.e. mangas. And in these five months many things had happened.

First of all he was able to buy all the available Naruto volumes with a bit of persuasion, saving and large amount of hard work. To buy them Issei had saved his allowances and worked around the neighborhood to gather enough money to finally buy them.

It was rewarding to him because not only did he get to enjoy a great action story but it also greatly helped his sage training. The manga not only gave him an insight in what a sage might have been but also show how Senjutsu could be used. Though he knew there was more to Senjutsu as the old book mentioned.

His favorite character in the series was Jiraiya the Toad Sage because not only was he a sage like Issei was training to be he was also very likable and made Issei wasn't to become like him, even if he would become a super pervert like him Issei did not mind that too much. He also thought of completing the Toad Sage's dream of a peaceful world no matter how impossible it was for him.

The series also taught Issei many things like the importance of friendship and teamwork, of never giving up no matter the odds and many other things that Issei kept it close to his heart. The lesson he learnt though the series were what the book had mention quite a lot in its pages and seeing an example of it did hammered those lessons home.

But it was not only moral lessons that the series taught him. It also taught him more about chakra and Senjutsu in detail. And through this he was able to further advance in his sage training.

The manga and the book may have differed on chakra and Senjutsu and their usage but it was similar enough to give him insight and understanding in many areas.

Though the five months were not just spent on gathering money and reading Naruto, Issei had also started doing various exercises towards a more healthy and fit body and had also started to study more and more. After all 'a sage grows not only in mind and spirit but also in body.' And with this tenant he had through himself in exercising and also his studies.

He also bough various mangas related to martial arts like History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, Yu Yu Hakusho, Ranma 1/2 , Fist of the north star, etc and even fullmetal alchemist, though the last one was recommended by the store clerk.

Reading them he had grown to love martial arts and gave his best in trying to emulate them even a little bit as he knew that he was still in no condition to do the incredible feats shown in the manga, but maybe he could in the future.

He especially liked the mindset of the Anything Goes style and put it to use in his daily life by making every action a training session and with the tips shown in the old book itself he was able to moderate and at the same time increase the efficiency of his training.

He also liked how pressure point could do so many things like healing, paralyzing, making one laugh and many others over the top ridiculous things. The old book on Senjutsu also had three chapter dedicated to pressure points and its uses too. So Issei really wanted to learn about pressure points.

There were also many things he liked in the mangas but what he really wanted to learn and emulate was healing. He really wanted to know how to heal like it was shown in the mangas and even the old book said it was possible hell there were techniques in the book which could make him a healer far greater than Tsunade.

He wanted to learn healing because the mangas and the book had stated many times that it was easier to destroy than to heal and it was a sage's job to heal not destroy. This was further reinforced via the fullmetal alchemist manga as it showed him many things.

The manga had showed him how experiments could go wrong and the consequences of such things and how some people would use other to further their goal and some dark things the world had to offer. It also showed him some good things the world had to offer. Truly the fullmetal alchemist manga made him see the world a bit differently than before but the path of the sage also told him of such things. So It just fitted him all the more.

The five months had truly been special to him so far. The days passed and lessons learned had helped him view the world much more differently. Oh, it was not like he was enlightened or anything with the world much brighter, colorful or anything. It was just that the world remain the same just his view of it had changed a bit.

The things he had learn from the manga and the tenant of the sage he employed in his life and the training he had been doing made him see things which he had not seen before, even though they were always there, hear sounds he would have otherwise ignored and understand things which he would not have understood even after many years or maybe in this life.

The sound he heard, the things he saw and the understanding he gained all made the world seem more amazing than anything he had ever experienced. It was a subtle change but he could finally see and feel the result of his training.

He really did feel like it was worth becoming a sage, though he still had a long way to go.

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Issei was meditating in the forest. The place for his meditation was a small clearing surrounded by trees with a few boulders in between, other than a small wide space it had nothing to call it special. No hidden cave network, no great hollowed tree, just a small clearing surrounded by trees.

Here Issei was meditating like he always did after finishing his regular katas and workout routine, like he had been doing so for the past one and a half month since he had found and chosen this place as a training area.

It was quite strange though how he had found this place.

There was nothing elaborate or grand incident to finding it, no chases involve, no falling down getting hurt or anything. Hell he even did not have to find this place after combing the area or anything of that sort. He just headed toward the first small hill he saw and voila he found the place.

Actually he used the clearing as a basis, a starting point to search for a suitable place to train and found several place but not one neither caught his attention too much nor appeal to him. And with each search he just came back to the clearing had his lunch or whatever snacks he may have pack and either continue searching or go back home.

It was quite easy to keep up this routine as the clearing had easily accessible paths leading to some of the more dangerous areas of the hills and was also connected to multiple paths leading back to the city.

So he kept exploring using the clearing as his base and soon he just started to arrange the boulders and rocks to sit and clear some space for relaxation or practice, arrange some fallen logs, etc. all the while searching for the perfect training area.

When it happened Issei did not notice but each time he came to the clearing to start s new search he slowly but surely cut down his search time and stared spending more and more at the clearing.

Sometimes he would just sit down and read and write some new ideas that he could come up with and other times he would practice his katas and do some workouts. Soon he altogether gave up on his search for a training area, cause well he just found one even if it was not the most perfect or the most awesome training area in existence.

Coming back to the present Issei was meditating as his usual routine. He was trying to tap into his chakra by meditation like he had been doing for the past two weeks and today he felt he was going to find some success.

It came to him like a torrent of icy cold water. It was a completely alien feeling he felt when his chakra flow through him. It was cold and like an electric shock made Goosebumps and made his hair stand out. It was warm like he was wearing thick winter cloths during summer. It made him feel weak like it was something of a curse from the devil, yet he knew it made him strong like it was a blessing from god.

It was strange as he felt more emotions and sensation as his body adjusted to this new power. It was truly beyond his understanding or knowledge and of the minute experience he had as a sage.

He felt it withdrawing, slowly and almost sluggishly going back to where it came from. He let it retreat for now, as he gathered and composed himself and called upon it again.

It answered and came like water from an overflowing dam. Rushing and invigorating his body with a new found power.

He had found it, his chakra and his ki.

Now the real training begins.

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><p>AN:- This chapter really was not the best I had and would never be the best. Also due to lack of dialogues not much could be said about the character I'm trying to build in Issei. But in the future chapter it would be clear how Issei is both similar and different than his cannon counterpart. See ya later.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It had been almost week since Issei had found his chakra and ki. Since then he had scoured the book and his mangas to make a list of all ki and chakra techniques, and boy was it long.

The list for ki techniques were long and was very varied for Issei to simply start trying to emulate and practice them and it was the same for chakra.

Though he did find some useful tips on how to increase one's ki and chakra using some training methods described in the book along with some additional methods from his mangas. He did want to just stick to increasing his chakra and ki reserves and if possible try to gain access to chi as well.

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Now what was the difference between ki and chi? Well Issei found that ki was pure physical energy which represented the life force of a person, while a chi was a natural energy that existed in nature as free flowing energy.

Chi while it was natural energy also known as natural ki was not pure physical energy like ki which represented life force. Chi also represented spiritual energy as well as other assortment of natural energies.

The book clearly stated that while chi and ki are most closely related they are vastly different due to their inherent nature and composition, since one was pure while the other was a combination of different energies. Comparing chi and ki were like comparing iron and steel, almost same appearances but different in properties and like steel chi tended to have different kinds and categories as well.

The book also emphasized on one fact about chi and ki it was that many people have different interpretation of ki and chi, some will have different meanings of ki and chi while some will just have the labels of ki and chi reversed for it.

The book in such situation advised to first feel the energy and then decide on its nature.

For chakra the book was clear that it was made of mental and physical energy not spiritual or magic with physical as the magical and spiritual energies were inherently different than mental energies.

The book stated that mental energies were mostly come in the form of psychic or esper powers also known as psi or psionics.

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Issei after researching all this soon began to follow through the ki and chakra building exercises as well as energy sensing for the beginning stages of Senjutsu training, and it was coming quite well too and was soon able to sense the life force of others but still was not able to distinguish them but it was just the second day of his sensory training so he was in no hurry.

Now most would that Issei must have been a prodigy to have made such advancements in such short month but he was not, though he was exceptional and very determined so he progressed quite faster than an average trainee.

The reason for his progress was that he had unrestricted access to all techniques and training methods for a sage in the art of Senjutsu and a treasure stove of knowledge that span more than a thousands of years of history that were tried, tested and refined to the point of maximum progress to get the best out of every second of training.

Now where was this treasure stove of thousand of years of knowledge? Why, it was it book of course.

It seems that the book while old and plain ordinary looking was enchanted in ways Issei could not even imagine. So when he accidentally channeled a bit of chakra new pages which weren't there before appeared and that too without increasing the book size or mass.

Issei who had previously memorized what was a 250 page book of information now had access to over more than 1000 pages worth of info on chakra alone.

He later tried channeling ki and the same happened with additional info and techniques on ki.

After skimming through and some pages he found that many of the techniques were exclusive to sages only as only they had the proper training to use them many dealing with nature and healing and crafting of various items.

He poured most of his time just going through all the techniques and info on chakra and ki and after a week he was able to memorized everything not understand or use them but he had memorized almost everything not all but close.

Now his brain should not have been able to processed everything there was but due to various memorization techniques both mundane, ki based and chakra based he was able to memorize and recall them perfectly, though it cause him to pass out for over two weeks and was a walking zombie for another week. If he had no had those memorization techniques he might have taken years to recover and even speak coherent words instead of mad ramblings.

He really was amazed at what he learned though, now that he slowly recalled them. There were quite a few, scratch that a whole lot of techniques that blew his mind, some literally would do exactly that.

The techniques range from healing, which he liked a whole lot, combat which went from ranged, silent, and frontal combat, which some were anti-world level techniques, to exploration, transportation, learning and teaching which Issei seemed to have unknowing mastered must have been how he leaned everything so quickly to just about everything even cleaning which had quite a lot of tips and example of application as well.

But what amazed and almost boggled Issei was that if a technique could be used and performed without ki or chakra it was written right next to it and Issei was shocked at learning how they could be done in almost all the methods listed some of the mundane techniques or their ki or chakra or even chi counterparts were easier to perform though some suffered from lack of power or were plain risky and dangerous.

Some were of style of fighting that made even the most skilled practitioner of martial arts that Issei knew look like novices, after all some techniques were able to cut diamond using paper or a stick. While some were just plain sounded and looked plain impossible till Issei tried some of the easier ones and they worked.

But what boggled Issei was that most of them followed science. Science!

Not the mundane science that he knew like laws gravity or something like that but laws with deals in time manipulation, faster than light travel, time dilation, hammerspace and sub-space and laws of multiple layers of reality, dimension, timeline and universe and their differences and so much more.

Issei was able to freeze water while keeping it on fire and made it float in the air and that was just a basic experiment that he came across. Who knew you could do that with milk paperclips and an old Beatle song.

What was more amazing was that they were all written by one person and one person only who went by the name Librarian.

Some of the other sages who had met him wrote that he was a fun eccentric guy always out seeking for knowledge and recording them and always trying to refine and find new ways of doing things, hell at one time when one magician name Salazar performed an orchestra of music using only magic and no musical instruments he did the same with a lot of glass bottles and drums and water and five rubber ball and a silver coin complete with a voice choir. How did he do this the answer vibrations and resonance and a whole lot of creativity.

But one day he disappeared and everything he did along with him. There were no giant cities of unbreakable glass, no grand monuments or libraries of knowledge and also nothing of the great feats he ever did was remembered or even believed to have existed except for some things and records which were immune to any inference of time. It was as if he was wiped out from time itself along with everything he did.

The sages at that time searched for him and investigated his disappearance and even searched for his friend the one call Doctor to get some answers about his disappearance but alas they found nothing, nothing at all except for the fact that the Daleks were involved who were they, they did not but every sage vowed to avenge him after all the felt much anger and hatred against the ones who could do such a cruel thing. And Issei also felt the same.

There were also records of countless prodigies who at the time wrote more that have of what was known about their respective line of works that were considered even miraculous even by today's standard both using ki and chakra and the mundane method.

There were also a lot of things Issei learned from the book and still could not understand a whole lot of them like knowing a proverb but not its meaning, and more and more were being revealed to him each and every time he read the book, and it was getting boring. BORING. BORING, BORING, BORING!

Yes, it was that much boring. Now don't blame Issei after all one can only read so much no matter how interesting it may be before becoming bored and not even exercising and training help stop the boredom.

Okay so he admit it, that it was fun to know how to created bombs from chicken eggs and water and also fun to break all HUMAN law of physics all the while playing with gravitons, but a child could only take so much of science when he was not that scientifically inclined towards it. nor did he want to keep reading about the totally awesome techniques that would take him quite a while to start training in.

So Issei took a trip to the store and bought a whole lot of anime DVDs and watch a marathon for four whole days then went on a long trip with his parents all over Japan and Europe for two months and came back right in time for school. All the while not touching the book nor any mangas or undergoing any training and spend some much needed time socializing with his parent and friends.

It was quite relaxing and Issei thought that he was now in somewhat a stable mindset of continuing his sage training.

He first wanted to complete training his sensory skills that were still a bit lacking as he still was not able to distinguish individual signatures but it was coming by as expected and he was finally able to access subspace for storage and travel, not to mention training, his favorite been the phantom subspace in which time flows 25 times faster but if one is skilled enough could control the speed of the flow and might even interact with the real world.

The last thing Issei started practicing was on a location spell that locates potential sages and teleports the user near them but that required using Senjutsu or a lot of ki and chakra which Issei was slowly going to have access to as his reserves of ki and chakra were slowly increasing to a level that was more than safe to use the spell and even if that was not the case he was able finally going to access Senjutsu chakra as he was almost finishing his sensory training and would be able to sense Senjutsu chakra.

School was finally starting and Issei was kind of looking forward to it along with his plans for finally using Senjutsu for the first time. But what Issei did not know was that he would face a test that many failed to pass, a test that even the greatest prodigy failed to conquer and that it would change him and his views forever.

For Issei did not know that he would face the hatred of that world and the phantoms of old if he did then maybe he would not have been so eager to share that knowledge with the ones who were going to become something more than his friends.

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><p>AN:- Now were are finally getting somewhere with this story and I'm sure there are a lot of question and a lot of explanations to be given not to mention a lot of things to be revealed but I'm thinking of revealing them in the course of the story so please be patient and do tell what you want to see most and what question you have.<p>

Till then See ya, Later.


	4. Chapter 4

Sage in training

Chapter 4

It was a quiet relaxing evening and Issei was meditating in his usual training place, the small clearing in the forest.

It was not that hard to meditate but today Issei was lost in thoughts and memories of the past few months.

He guess that he was feeling a bit nostalgic today as he seem to have passed the time reminiscing or as a certain one masked Cyclops would say, 'lost in the way of life'.

He was remembering the hectic past five months that were a rollercoaster of a ride, even if it was just about meeting some new friends and getting to know them.

It was crazy, it was fun and it was just plain madness the meeting were and utterly ridiculous and improbable the circumstances surrounding them. And all this led to him meeting and gaining new friends.

The first of the lot, his new friends, was his classmate Shimura Katase, a girl with a pink hair that had a light reddish hue and was prodigy of the sword, heiress of the Shimura Clan and their martial arts and their numerous sword styles and holder nicknamed 'Sword Princess of the Shimura clan'.

He had met her at the begging of the year but had only begun to talk to her after the summer break and soon became her friend.

The reason for this was that during at that time before summer he was always with Iri and did not pay her much attention. After his friend had left he had gotten the book and was busy training in the sage arts and other assorted training.

It was during his sage training, when he had begun practicing the martial arts in the book that he had noticed Katase again.

He had often gone to the local gyms and dojo to get a gist of how he should train alongside the instructions in the book that he had noticed her. It was just her doing some katas that he had seen her and not paid much attention other than that she was his classmate. Then in his later visits he saw her trouncing some of the older senior students.

She got hurt a lot during the fights but she always seem to bounce back and win her matches. For Issei it was quite inspiring as even though he had learnt that girls weren't weak or helpless and could be strong in their own right. He had yet to see a valid example and Katase was the first girl that he had seen that display such strength.

His visit to the dojo was quite prominent and he was soon seen as a regular member even though he did not join the dojo or practiced kenjutsu or kendo. He was often seen helping around before he left to continue his own training.

With this he would often cheer the students and help them in some small ways life giving first aid, helping cleaning the dojo or other small chores around the dojo.

Even so, he had not much interaction with Katase though he would often cheer her in her practice matches and spars and help her sometimes. Being an heiress from an important clan also made her pay not much attention to him.

Instead Issei would often talk to the instructors and senior students, while Katase would practice and attend the regular lessons only interacting during the matches and spars, while ignoring each other at class.

This was somewhat of a routine for the two of them just some occasional gestures but no conversations, but doing so both of them learnt more about each other than simple words would done. It seemed that action really spoke louder than words.

Issei still didn't consider Katase his friend nor did Katase considered Issei as her friend; though to the onlookers they were seen as friends and maybe a bit more. Just ask the one of the instructors.

Then summer came and Issei went on the trip with his parents.

When the summer break ended and he came back he was quite surprised when Katase greeted him and inquired where he went for the break. It was the first proper conversation that he had with her that did not start or end with just 'hello'.

He was bit taken back with that but then he started chatting with her about his break and the trip. It was quite fun talking to her and he really enjoyed seeing her smile and talk. It was just like the time he spent with Iri.

Then during the conversation he casually remarked that he had successfully learnt the chestnut fist from Ranma ½, and was on his way to learning the breaking point technique.

Katase was bit skeptical at that but believed him when he performed the chestnut fist, even if it was 5 punches per sec for 3 seconds, compared to the 100 punches per sec of the manga. He then carelessly commented that Katase could not do what had done while forgetting about her stubborn competitive pride.

After that it somehow led to him taunting her a bit while gloating about his skills, which led to Katase making a bet that if she could copy and recreated some sword style Issei had to do what she had to say. They even managed to rope in Mr. Yusuke, one of the kendo instructor of the dojo, and asked him in helping in the demonstration, which he agreed quite readily after seeing Issei in action. Issei to help Katase get a start gave her the Samurai X manga as it had some of the best and incredible yet believable sword styles.

After being absent for three days Katase came to class ragged and tired, yet prime and proper, how she does it Issei still didn't know, and told Issei to met him at the dojo after school.

It was then at the dojo that Katase surprise everyone even Issei when she performed the techniques of the _Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū_, a sword style that even modern day historians and swordsmen often comments that this would be one of the strongest sword style in existence if it was real and replicable, which till now was not.

Katase performed the Ryūtsuisen, Ryūshōsen, Ryūkansen and the Kuzuryūsen in near perfect form, though there were some differences due to her height and build, it was no doubt that Katase had replicated a really dangerous sword style making her a dangerous opponent and that was not considering any of her family styles either. Ten year old and Katase had become one of the most dangerous swordswoman Issei had ever known and probably even the world.

Everyone present there were shocked at seeing Katase performing the techniques even Mr. Yusuke who had agreed to be Katase's opponent for the demonstration was shocked especially when Katase performed the Kuzuryūsen, even if the techniques had some small variations but not much that one would notice.

All present there were awestruck after the last technique was performed by Katase and even when all knew her reputation as an upcoming kendo prodigy. She had seemingly destroyed any misconceptions and doubts about her abilities in the art of the sword and about the strength of the Shimura family. Some even gave her the nickname of Sword Princess and from what Issei heard made the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū a valid sword style with Katase Shimura as its sole practitioner, just like the previous day when Issei had performed the chestnut fist and seemingly became the sole practitioner of the Anything Goes Martial Arts even if it was an Amazon technique, though he was now trying to make the frog fist a valid martial arts now.

All this happened because of a small quarrel between two 10 year old kids. Some people really take things a tad too far.

Her performance though was incredible and Issei had not sense her using even a bit of ki or any other type of energy. It was pure physical skill and technique, not ki chakra or anything, it was all her. With grace and finesse like the ones in the manga and anime, she was fast and precise with strength to back it up. Issei could perform them but that was only with ki and chakra added to the mix and even then he could not reach the level of grace that Katase showed truly Issei was outclassed by her in pure swordsmanship.

Later after the demonstration Katase came to fulfill her part of the bet and as per the bet Issei agreed to give her some sword techniques that he had learn through the book. It was at that time that she almost collapsed. With no one around as everyone dispersed after the demonstration Issei decided to carry her home which he found was 13 kilometers from the school.

She was tired and had not fainted yet but was close enough and with no one around to help Issei carried her to her home which was not that difficult as it sounded with a bit of ki and chakra. On the way Katase regained enough energy to talk though before that Issei was the one doing all the talking.

They talk about a lot of things, of their quarrel and mangas, kenjutsu, kendo martial arts, school and friends, which Issei found they both, had none or ones they could truly call friends. It was, he didn't know familiar and saddening at the same time kind of sobering. She due to her status as a rich heir to an old samurai family as well as her prodigy status, while for Issei it was due to his otaku status that he gained during his training in Senjutsu over the past months that had led to us having almost no one they could truly call friends.

Talking and walking, they both learned a lot about each other and when Issei commented about her being almost like Sakura Haruno from Naruto that was when he found out how scary she could get. It seems she does not like being compared to a fangirl though Issei was referring to the Shipudden version not the first one.

Upon reaching her house which was an old mansion and an estate Issei randomly asked how she even got to school on time. To which she replied that she walked and sometimes run all the way to school, which kind of explains her incredible speed and endurance needed for the Hiten.

During the following days Issei and Katase almost hanged around each other and were near inseparable with Issei helping Katase learn the sword techniques and with her school work and Katase helping Issei with his martial arts training. Not that Issei needed her help due to the book but having someone to practice with really improved his styles, which was one of the reasons Issei was going to use the location spell. In a short time they spent with each other they had somehow become best friends.

A month later after the incident almost everyone in town knew of the blooming friendship between Issei and Katase, though it was mostly them coming up with new techniques to beat each other.

During that time both saw an incredible increase in their skills.

Katase during that month somehow learned how to use all the techniques of the Hiten-Mitsurugi-ryū and even replicated an impossible technique 'The Hiten–Tsubame Gaeshi' form Fate Stay/Night and vowed to recreate the Dark Slayer Style form the DMC series. Katase with the help of Issei made incredible progress with her family style which were already considered deadly in their own right and even improved and added new techniques to them.

Issei was really scared of Katase due to her almost unnatural progress and he knew then that prodigies and geniuses when meet hard work result in broken characters, with Katase being a great example as she was a really hard worker on top of being a prodigy.

Issei also during the month was able to enter the phantom subspace and even managed to interact with the real word from there even though due to the time differences he naturally moved faster. This greatly help Issei as he was able to really train extended hours, even days in short time. Hell, he even spent four months in the phantom subspace and was only gone for nine hours.

Issei really did not get the time conversion of the phantom subspace as the book stated it was only 25 times faster so he should not have been able to spend months in it and only result in a few hours loss. Issei also found that the phantom space was an exact copy of the real world with all the exact details and items but devoid of life and that any items that were destroyed in the phantom subspace were not destroyed in the real world. It was a really great training technique which he abused the hell out of it to catch up with Katase, even though Katase later ended up learning it and also abused it as much as he did.

Issei also noted that in the phantom subspace somehow he somehow age very slowly and even seemed to not grow like he normally did in the real world. After some experimentation he found out that the phantom subspace somehow reset his body to the time he entered the phantom subspace after exiting it but still mysteriously kept all the results of the training done in the subspace.

He though it was quite convenient and felt like it was suppose to belong in some manga where the protagonist gets this technique to do some dire last minute training, seriously though it was quite an unfair technique.

Issei during this was able to improve his sensory techniques and was able to increase the chestnut fist to a respectable 90 punches per second with a total duration of 45 second max unlike the 1000 punches per sec of the original technique he still had a long way to go for it.

Issei even learn a lot of other techniques and skills and improve his already existing ones. Like the Breaking Point technique from Ranma ½ which he learned after Katase had shown him the Hiten-Tsubame Gaeshi, with which he sometimes went on a demolition spree in the phantom subspace.

He was also able to really improve his medical knowledge using the phantom subspace, he even learn some swordsmanship, spear-wielding, archery and other assorted weapon training though he was nowhere near proficient in these areas but it was still something he tried to improve upon.

Using the phantom subspace Issei was also able to freely use his ki and chakra techniques and made great progress in them along with increasing his reserves, he was also able to briefly use his psi part of chakra for a while and had to really focus on it to use it again, after which he started training them.

His psi powers were the typical telepathy and telekinesis but he also seemed to have some other psi powers. One was teleportation, which meant that he could teleport himself to different locations. He also found that he could teleport objects around himself even other people and animals even it was in an limited range which seemed to grow with practice.

His next psi ability was magnetic manipulation which he did not use much as it reminded him of the character Magneto but then thought to practice it after finding out exactly what that guy was able to do with it. it was then Issei was introduced to the marvel and dc comics which surprising were fun to read after learning how to read English and it also resulted in him doing remarkably well in English class.

His other psi abilities also included electricity manipulation and boy did he have fun with it. Issei while researching about this ability came across the A certain magical index and A certain scientific Railgun series which not only became one of his favorite series but also drew a lot of ideas from it.

He was greatly inspired by the two teleporters in the series Musujime Awaki and Shirai Kuroka not to mention Misaka Mikoto, whose abilities were similar to his. Issei wanted to surpass the Railgun ability of Misaka as it was an incredible ability and even tried hacking using electricity manipulation though he was quite unsuccessful in it. Issei also made a note on recreating the various abilities that were based on lightning or electricity using either his psi powers or chakra and ki. It was a very slow process though as there were tons of them.

Even though his psi abilities were useful Issei did not train them much except for his teleportation and magnetic manipulation. This was because Issei focused mainly on his Senjutsu training and the location spell for which he was preparing and Issei decided that only after he had used the location spell he would really start training his psi abilities, not that he wasn't already training them but not to the extent of his other abilities.

As for the level of his psi abilities he could safely read the minds of over 10 people simultaneously and not feel like his head would explode and was even able to engage them in a conversation without them knowing about it, with his sage training he had already gained quite some powerful mental barriers which were boosted with his telepathy but till he find another telepath he was unsure of their overall strength.

For telekinesis he was able to lift a large boulder the size of a car and move it at a high speed but other than that and moving other smaller objects, the standard push and pull, he was not able to practice this ability much.

For his electricity manipulation he was able to generate quite some power but since he didn't have the necessary tools with him, he was unable to measure the generated voltage and overall power. He was quite sure it was powerful though but he may be overestimating it.

Issei while not able to properly control and generate electricity and shoot lightning was able to use electromagnetism to control metal and when used with his magnetic manipulation was able to boost his control a lot.

Speaking of his magnetic manipulation, Issei had trained this psi ability the most second only to his teleportation ability and was at the level where he could life and crush large metal towers to a football size scraps and when he used it along with his electromagnetism from his electricity manipulation he was able to reduce them to much smaller pieces. He still was not a the level of Magneto as that guy could do what Issei could do with a thought while Issei had to really concentrate on what he had to do.

His most practiced and well refined psi ability was his teleportation skill. Issei for this ability was able to really increase his range of teleportation in hundreds of kilometers with his max range was unknown to him and was able to even teleport thing in his sight to other locations and he once even teleported the Tokyo tower to another city. Good thing he did it while he was in the phantom subspace or else that would have been international news.

He really had fun with his teleportation skill but he preferred walking and running to teleporting. He would admit it was fun to scare people into thinking he was a ninja when he teleported and scared them.

Issei also found that when his psi and ki abilities increased in power and control, his chakra also increased in potency and power and likewise when his chakra increased in control and reserves his Ki and psi abilities also did the same.

After one month since the bet against Katase, Issei had spent almost one and a half years of time in the phantom subspace and yes he was counting how much time he spent in it. Issei had done a lot of things and was finally, finally able to complete his preparations for the location spell, with some training done for good measure.

Issei had set up the spell in his usual training ground in the real world instead of the phantom subspace to avoid any interference and started it.

It first seemed like nothing happened but then Issei soon found himself drifting, he didn't know if it was his mind or his body that was drifting, all he knew was that he was drifting, drifting along with the spell as it search for the best possible candidate for being a sage.

He found himself seeing different locations that went like a blur, yet seemed crystal clear to him.

After sometime he found something, an image of a young girl whose hair was white as snow like had a certain metallic glow like silver, her frame delicate and small, her clothes were but mere rags that were torn and could barely be considered clean. Overall she looked like someone from the streets, starved and poor and yet she was in a castle where she stood like a beacon to his senses.

Issei knew then and there that he had found a fellow sage or at least one that had immense potential to become one.

So when she asked the simple question "Who are you?" in the true spirit of his Idol Sage Issei greeted her.

"From the Northern winds to the Southern Seas, my name shall echo far and wide, for I am the second coming of the Gallant Sage, searching for my fellow sages and learning the forbidden arts, I am Issei Hyoudou a Sage in training traveling the world, and you young lady have been chosen to wield power eternal and become a sage of the world."

Hah that was the most perfect introduction he had given, with his cloak blowing with the wind and his staff in hand giving him a firm support Issei thought he surely must have made a great impact on the girl as she stood there silent and staring at him. She must be at awe at his entrance.

"You're weird."

OK maybe not so much, better luck next time.

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><p><strong>AN: Well sorry for the late update and this was due to many reason like writers block, real life computer crashing down and many more. Reasons aside this was also not one my better chapter so far and well since I'm not much of an expert at writing dialogues, There were not much i could do.<br>**

**Though what i could do was what i did and many might find it surprising or maybe not so much.**

**Now many might say that I'm making Issei a bit to op in here and also very early on, well yes I'll admit it maybe so, but there are reasons for it or maybe not I'll have to get back on that. **

**Still the next few chapter will be publish quickly so be on the look out for it. Till then See ya.**


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